Moving Dartmouth Forward

Community Citizenship Working Group

In his speech to the community on Jan. 29, President Hanlon called for the creation of a “code of conduct” that would “articulate the high expectations—as they relate to civility, dignity, diversity, community, and safety—that we have for Dartmouth students. These are the fundamentals for every graduate who will go out into the world to lead.” The charge of the Community Citizenship working group has been to develop the language for this statement of community citizenship.

The 11-person group—made up of a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty, and parents—worked together to review current Dartmouth documents, including the Principle of Community, the honor principle, and standards of conduct, as well as a review of conduct codes at other institutions. During this process the group discussed the principles, values, and expectations expounded in these documents, how or if they are relevant to our community today, and what conduct they want to see in the community in the years ahead.

In approaching the drafting of the code of conduct, the group focused on three qualities for the code of conduct:(1) That the document would be concise and a living document that would be visible to the community and interacted with(2) That the document focused on the individual’s responsibilities as a member of the Dartmouth community(3) That the document affirmed values that promote learning from and with one another

With these qualities in mind, the group developed the below short three paragraph draft that focused on broad standards, responsibilities, and educational values. While focused on students, we hope this will be a document that all members of our community will get behind and endorse.

The working group continues to brainstorm ways for there to be regular affirmation and engagement with the code of conduct and implementation will occur over the summer.

Proposed Code of Conduct Pledge

As a member of the Dartmouth community:

I hold myself to the highest standards of learning, teaching, service, and scholarship.I will conduct myself with integrity, in all matters.

As a citizen of this community, I accept several responsibilities:

I am responsible for my own education.I will read, understand, and uphold the Academic Honor Principle.I will contribute to this community and conduct myself, here and in the wider world, in a manner worthy of my education.

I affirm that in the Dartmouth community:

We learn together.

We teach one another.

We create knowledge together.

We treat ourselves and each other with dignity and respect.

We recognize that our diverse backgrounds broaden our understanding of the world.We appreciate that an honest and civil exchange of ideas – especially conflicting ones – strengthens our intellect and makes for an inclusive community.